Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen and more feature on a newly curated compilation, ‘Where The Willow And The Dogwood Grow’, in tribute to Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan. Find all the details below.
The record is the latest instalment of Ace Records’ long-running series of multi-artist compilations celebrating the great American songwriters of the modern era.
It follows previous editions showcasing the work of Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, Randy Newman, Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Leonard Cohen, Lee Hazlewood, Brian Wilson and Laura Nyro.
Hundreds of artists have recorded songs from Waits and his wife Brennan’s catalogue – 19 of which comprise this new hand-picked collection, including many chosen by the songwriters themselves.
‘Where The Willow And The Dogwood Grow’ is due for release on Friday May 29 via Ace. Pre-order here.
The forthcoming LP opens with Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band‘s 1981 live recording of ‘Jersey Girl’ – Waits’ ode to Brennan from his 1980 album, ‘Heartattack And Vine’.
Elsewhere on the tracklist is Cash’s take on ‘Down There By The Train’ from his 1994 full-length effort, ‘American Recordings’. Folk legend Joan Baez’s version of Waits and Brennan’s anti-war track ‘Day After Tomorrow’ – from Waits’ 2004 album ‘Real Gone’ – closes the new compilation.
As well as “steering the ship”, Brennan became Waits’ songwriting partner. The couple’s first-released joint composition, ‘Hang Down Your Head’ from 1985’s ‘Rain Dogs’, appears on the new tracklist as “a raunchy rendition” courtesy of country-blues icon Lucinda Williams.
Various other names from the worlds of jazz, blues, gospel, soul and rock have put their own spins on Waits’ material. These include Marianne Faithfull (on ‘Strange Weather’), Ramones (‘I Don’t Want To Grow Up’), Willie Nelson (‘Picture In A Frame’), Alison Krauss and Robert Plant (‘Trampled Rose’), and Norah Jones (‘The Long Way Home’).
‘Where The Willow And The Dogwood Grow’ was put together with the blessing, approval and involvement of Waits and Brennan. It is described as an “essential collection for any fan of this remarkable artist’s unique work”.
An official listing reads: “Few artists have remapped the terrain of popular music, and culture at large, like Tom Waits. Over the course of five decades, he has forged a singular aesthetic that defies genre and turns the marginal into myth. His work is neither fully inside nor outside the mainstream tradition but moves restlessly between them, drawing from vaudeville, blues, jazz, folk, theatre – and just about anything else that catches his ear – to craft something wholly his own.
“His influence reverberates not just through the underground and avant-garde, but across theatre, film, literature, and visual art. With his long-time creative partner and wife Kathleen Brennan, he has dismantled and reassembled the idea of song itself, crafting works that exist as both raw expression and high art.
“This collection honours not only the extraordinary versatility of Waits and Brennan’s songwriting, but the importance of an artist who continues to haunt and inspire from the edges inward.”
The tracklist for ‘Where The Willow And The Dogwood Grow’ is:
1. ‘Jersey Girl’ – Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (Live at Meadowlands Arena, NJ – July 1981)
2. ’16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought-Six’ – Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band
3. ‘Gin-Soaked Boy ‘– Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes
4. ‘Jockey Full Of Bourbon’ – Los Lobos
5. ‘Hang Down Your Head’ – Lucinda Williams
6. ‘Temptation’ – Diana Krall
7. ‘Yesterday Is Here’ – Bettye LaVette
8. ‘Way Down In The Hole’ – The Blind Boys Of Alabama
9. ‘Strange Weather’ – Marianne Faithfull
10. ‘I Don’t Want To Grow Up’ – Ramones
11. ‘Down There By The Train’ – Johnny Cash
12. ‘House Where Nobody Lives’ – King Ernest
13. ‘Picture In A Frame’ – Willie Nelson
14. ‘Hold On’ – Madison Cunningham
15. ‘The Long Way Home’ – Norah Jones
16. ‘2:19’ – John Hammond
17. ‘Diamond In Your Mind’ – Solomon Burke
18. ‘Trampled Rose’ – Alison Krauss and Robert Plant
19. ‘Day After Tomorrow’ – Joan Baez
Meanwhile, both Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen are set to appear on the upcoming tribute album ’20th Century Paddy – The Songs Of Shane MacGowan’.
In other news, The Boss has revealed that his US ‘Land Of Hope And Dreams’ tour is “going to be political”, and said he is prepared for the “blowback” he could receive. “I do what I want to do, I say what I want to say and then people get to say what they want to say about it,” he explained. “Those are the rules of my game. That’s fine with me.”